MATTHEW 21:28-32 The Parable of the Two Sons
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”
Well, there Jesus goes again, offending the religious establishment big-time! Unless you understand the context of this story, you won’t appreciate its full impact to those following Jesus. Jesus has just made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem and has immediately thrown the money changers and sellers of animals out of the temple. The religious teachers are incensed-after all, THEY know what should be happening in the temple and THEY have never seen anything wrong with turning it into a miniature Noah’s ark! There’s also a strong possibility that these same men have been quietly pocketing part of the profits from the sale of animals for sacrifices and the changing of regular money into temple money.
Matthew 21:23-27 tells the story. “Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”
But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.”
And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
It is after this exchange that Jesus tells the story of the two sons. When John the Baptist came preaching repentance, prostitutes, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, and all kinds of other socially undesirable people swarmed to John, repenting and being baptized. These people never flattered themselves that they were anything other than abject sinners in need of salvation. Those who repented went away with heaven in their faces and changed lives; meanwhile, the religious leaders stood at a distance, mocking them and criticizing them for their failure of doctrinal correctness. The common people KNEW that John was a prophet while the religious establishment refused to accept John’s ministry because they didn’t think he wasn’t one of them. Never mind that John’s father Zachariah was active in the priesthood at the time of John’s birth, for these men, John was a shameless renegade.
The moral of the story of the two sons is obvious: obedience is better than any amount of words. Centuries earlier, the prophet Samuel informed King Saul that obedience was better than sacrificing lots of perfect animals. The tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners who repented under John’s ministry are represented by the son who first refused but then obeyed. The second son represents the religious leaders who have given lip service to serving God but who have really been serving themselves and their prejudices instead.
There’s a story about a little boy who misbehaved and whose mother ordered him to go sit in a corner to think about his misdeeds. As the boy hauled a chair over to the corner and plopped down on it, he proclaimed, “I MIGHT BE SITTING DOWN ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT I’M STANDING UP ON THE INSIDE!” That child was so bent on getting his own way that no amount of discipline was going to change his mind. Perhaps he felt entitled to misbehave. In the same way, many of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day are so bent on doing what they want that when God sends His long-awaited Messiah, they reject him because he doesn’t fit their preconceptions. For these men, their minds are already made up; don’t confuse them with the facts.
And now the question for us: Are we obedient or disobedient children of our Heavenly Father? When God asks us to do something, do we obey or do we argue, finding every excuse in the book to avoid anything unpleasant or difficult?
Many people are familiar with the story of Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission; however, fewer people realize that Taylor began training himself quite early to live by faith. When Taylor was apprenticed to a doctor in Liverpool, the doctor frequently forgot to pay Hudson promptly. Hudson learned to trust God to remind the doctor. During that same time, Hudson also trained himself to live on food that was nourishing but not appetizing so that when he reached the mission field, that adjustment would not be difficult. At the height of the China Inland Mission in China, there were 1500 or more mission stations plus untold numbers of Bible men and women circulating throughout villages. CIM focused on training believers rather than erecting big buildings. When the Communists took over China, many of those trained by CIM continued to quietly spread the Gospel, despite all opposition.
God never asks us to do something difficult or nasty for Him without promising that eventually there will be a blessing. But we must be willing to be obedient children. The son who went to the vineyard got sweaty and dirty and tired while the one who stayed in the house remained cool and clean. But which son did the father appreciate more? Certainly the son who obeyed gladdened his father’s heart while the son who stayed in the house disappointed his father.
Throughout the world, there are those working for God who may suffer and even die while completing their duties. We had a doctor friend named Sister Veronika Theresa Rakova, a Catholic nun. In the spring of 2016, Sister Veronika was working in Yei, in southern Sudan and had just used the clinic ambulance to send a laboring mother in critical condition to a local hospital. As Sister Veronika was returning to her small clinic, drunken soldiers saw her vehicle and shot at it several times, severely wounding Veronika. Sadly, Sister Veronika died from those wounds four days later. When Veronika left for the hospital that night with that patient, she knew she was taking risks, but for Veronika, the will of God was far more important than anything else. For the people of that area, Veronika is now regarded as a martyr, someone who graphically demonstrated God’s love while laying down her life.
When we do God’s will, God will give us His peace. We don’t know what Sister Veronika thought during those four days she lay dying, but we do know that she loved God and was willing to be obedient. May we all be willing to obey, even if it costs us our lives, remembering that God is the One who keeps the records and He is the One who can reward our obedience.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives, no matter the cost. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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